Red Hand

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Red Hand

Stained the sinner's red.

Beholden to None.

Chaos Warband

Chaos God

Chaos Undivided

Founding

M31 - Night Lords

Numbers

Around 150 Astartes

Leader

Lord Azhmari Vulkyr

Homeworld

The Funereal Shroud - Strike Cruiser

Battle cry

'Vindication is nothing before Death!'

Colours

Black, Midnight Blue, Red Gauntlets.

Pre-Heresy

Homeworld

Nostramo - Destroyed

"Nostraman you may be, but you are no Night Lord. You are prey."

—Lord Azhmari Vulkyr

Beginning existence as the 7th Company of Night Lords under chapter master Deimos, the warband of Night Lords that would become the Red Hand are unique among members of the Eighth Legion in that they openly reject the Night Haunter, or indeed worship of any god or any kind of purpose beyond their own personal glory and the Long War against the Imperium. Because of this, all members of the warband ritually stain their gauntlets Sinner's Red, earning their nickname and rejecting any kind of reconciliation or understanding behind the Primarch's vision or wishes. In Nostraman gang lore, the Red Hand is a mark of death, tattooed to those who had duty to perform before they are executed, but the tradition is twisted by this warband, who brand themselves 'guilty' as a rejection of those who would rule and judge them.

Contents

History

"I was never a son to you or your Emperor. Plead to him now as you die."

—Lord Azhmari Vulkyr

For centuries, the Sons of Deimos would wander in and out of realspace and the Eye of Terror, attacking Imperial Worlds for fun and profit. Deimos was a good pirate, but he lacked the ambition of other Chaos Lords, and despite living in the heart of the Ruinous Powers, refused to embrace any of them, instead seeing Chaos as something distasteful, and to be avoided.

This all changed when Deimos picked up a vicious, almost feral child noble, Azhmari Vulkyr, from the Feudal World of Ubervald. Vulkyr had been originally intended as a tithe to the Raven Guard, who defended the system, and was thus denied the pleasures of the noble life and viciously abused by his Redemptionist father. After murdering the royal family and offering the world up to Deimos, Vulkyr would be inducted as a Night Lord and would serve as the warband's champion, along with Kulstov, a vicious serial-killing raptor, who became his rival.

Vulkyr quickly made an ally with the warband's captive Sorcerer, Al-Zharad, who hung from chains in the navigator's chamber, guiding the ship through the Empyrian, and slowly became more acquainted with the Ruinous Powers, acquiring a true Daemon Sword and becoming a champion of Chaos Undivided. This caused a rift between Vulkyr and those of 7th Company who wished to use Chaos as a weapon against the Imperium, and the more traditional inner circle of Deimos. Vulkyr fought Deimos one on one, proving before the entire warband that he was not a slave to Chaos by striking the final blow with Deimos' own thunder-hammer, and thus denying his former commander's soul to the Daemon in his sword. In doing so he proved that Chaos could be used as a tool, and ascended as the leader of the newly-christened Red Hand.

Combat Doctrine

"The only gods here are murderers, my brothers in arms, and all anyone else can be are victims."

The Red Hand strike like any other Night Lord warband, descending with virtually no warning, attacking without mercy, and vanishing with no trace. The difference is, the Red Hand fully embrace the power of Chaos to spread terror, and will often employ strikes with Daemons, sorcery and mutants in order to cause fear and disorder in enemy ranks.

Interestingly, while the Warband embraces Chaos as a weapon, they are very distrustful of people who fully embrace subservience to another being, be it a Chaos God or the Emperor. As such, the Red Hand will often attack Shrine Worlds, and even other Chaos warbands in for resources and artefacts, seeing the more devout as no different to Loyalist scum. They also tend to erect mock shrines of worship to the dark gods in order to bind Daemons into serving them, often with subtly ironic or intentionally incorrect iconography, which also confuses those who investigate the aftermath of their attacks.

Oddly enough among Night Lord warbands, the Red Hand actually treats humans who reject the Imperial Faith with a certain measure of respect, and the favored slaves of the warband have their hands tattooed Sinner's Red as well, as a mark of protection.

Notable Members

Lord Azhmari Vulkyr - The firstborn son of a very strict Redemptionist lord of the nocturnal world of Ubervald, Azhmari was destined to be an Astartes from a very young age. His father saw him, and the tithe he paid to the Imperium as his personal carte-blanche, and was a corrupt and terrible ruler and father. His brothers and sister were much better but still enjoyed the privileged life of a noble while Azhmari was stuck in an ascetic life of training to become one of the Emperor’s Chosen. When the Night Lord Warband, the Sons of Deimos attacked Ubervald, Lord Vulkyr offered them Azhmari. Outraged at this hypocrisy, Vulkyr murdered his father with his bare hands right then and there, killed his siblings and offered them all to Deimos, who was impressed and took the young man to be a Night Lord. Serving under Deimos, he quickly found that the latter was honorable, but still a psychopathic Night Lord. Deimos was terrified of sorcery, and kept his sorcerer Al-Zharad locked away, where Azhmari visited him and struck up a friendship. Azhmari began to become comfortable with and embrace the power of Chaos, which eventually led to a dual that killed Deimos and saw Azhmari as the new warlord. Azhmari's story is further laid out in Memories of a Warlord.

Sorcerer Al-Zharad - Born on the desert world of Ur-Tannum and forcefully indoctrinated into the warband, Al-Zharad has spent the last several thousand years chained to the ceiling of the Navigator's chambers of the Funereal Shroud guiding the ship through the Warp. Freed by Vulkyr, and after teaching him the basics of the Ruinous Powers, the two began to formulate a coup that would see Vulkyr and Al-Zharad as the new leaders of the Red Hand.

Kulstov- Kulstov was, like many Night Lords drawn from the hive of scum and villainy that made up Nostramo. Unlike the other gangers and filth that were elevated to the eighth legion however, Kulstov was never involved with organized crime. From the age of ten onward, Kulstov was a murderer, having killed other children who stole his toys. Son of an otherwise minor official, Kulstov became the most nortorious serial killer in the city, evading law and enforcement and the dread Night Haunter himself. Of course, Konrad caught up with Kulstov, and seeing how he was just a child, one with such a great talent for deception, the Primarch chose him to be one of the first Night Raptors. For Kulstov's part, catching him made the Night Haunter the only being in the galaxy to scare the killer. Unlike the rest of the Night Lords, Kulstov found relief in Konrad's death, seeing it as a liberation from responsibility. He serves in the Red Hand as a Raptor Champion of Chaos Undivided, free to indulge his animalistic, vicious urges on civilian and soldier alike. Kulstov's story is laid out further in Memories of a Psychopath.

Dirge - A rare Noise Marine of the Night Lords legion. He later on amicably parts with the Red Hand to join Vritra the Howler and the Screaming Rapture Noise Marines. Dirge's story is expanded upon further in Memories of a Hunter.